EN
In office copy centers, print shops, medical imaging departments, and commercial print shops—anywhere large print volumes are the order of the day-paper jams almost always appear to stem from a mechanical issue or poor quality paper. There is, however, another culprit- often overlooked as "silent" in the way it attacks the printer: power quality. AC power fluctuations like spikes, sags, and harmonics, will disrupt a printer's control electronics, cause a motor to step incorrectly, make fuser rollers go into an unsteady mode of operation and cause sensor false errors. A socket-style voltage stabilizer, a simple, inexpensive solution which plugs into a wall socket and provides the smoothed, stabilized voltage needed to support one or two printers, can prevent power quality related jams in the following ways.
Eliminating Stepper Motor Timing Errors
Each sheet of paper fed through a printer passes between carefully controlled stepper motors that must feed in extremely precise fractions of a millimeter amounts at high speeds. It needs a stable voltage supply. A voltage spike makes the motor overshoot and feed a sheet of paper far too quickly, resulting in a fold, or buckle, in the paper which creates the jam. A voltage sag drops the torque of the motor, causes it to momentarily stop or slip, and creates another paper jam as it becomes caught between the rollers.
A socket-style stabilizer maintains an output voltage of ±3-5% from the rated value, irrespective of the incoming voltage. These units utilize SCR (thyristor) or relay based tap switching technology to regulate voltage and respond within milliseconds-faster than the inertia of a motor can respond to input fluctuations. For machines running in buildings with lots of heavy equipment such as elevators, HVAC systems or other copiers, voltage spikes are a frequent occurrence and a socket stabilizer between the wall socket and the printer can dramatically decrease the occurrence of feed jams that result from timing errors in stepper motors.
Stabilizing Fuser Roller Temperature Control
To melt toner onto the paper, laser printers and multi-function devices have fuser rollers which must be kept at specific, high temperatures—between 180°C and 200°C degrees Celsius. Voltage fluctuations, however, can cause inconsistent fuser heater temperature. Over-voltage spikes result in overheated, sticky toner, causing the paper to wrap around the fuser rollers and jam. Voltage sags under-heat the roller and result in incompletely melted toner being attached to the paper which creates intermittent misfeeds and eventually full paper jams.
By providing clean, stable voltage, a socket-style voltage stabilizer allows the fuser control loop to maintain the required consistent temperature. For printers that include "instant-on" fuser systems and power saving "sleep" modes, the constant stable voltage is particularly important and ensures the printer’s fuser heater maintains proper temperature. Cold toner jams resulting from undervoltage become less of a factor.
Filtering Harmonics That Confuse Paper Sensors
Modern printers utilize optical or ultrasonic sensors to determine when paper is present, where it is, and if it is overlapping. These sensors require low voltage D.C. That originates from the printer's internal power supply. However, voltage spikes and high-frequency harmonics that result from switching power supplies or variable frequency drive devices that run in buildings can inject "noise" into the D.C. Bus, which is the pathway used by the printer's electronics. This noise causes false signals and can tell the sensors that paper is present when it isn't or that the paper has jammed when it hasn't.
High frequency noise is eliminated at the input to a socket-style stabilizer through filters which clamp over-voltage spikes and attenuate higher frequencies before they get to the printer. Some units include optional EMI/RFI filtering. This type of filtering becomes extremely important in mixed use buildings or any building that might be described as having "dirty" power from other equipment such as VFD's or power factor correction circuits. These sensors will less often trigger falsely so the printer will require less operator intervention and produce higher throughput.
Protecting Control Boards from Cumulative Damage
A single power surge may not cause a visible paper jam. Small, repetitive over-voltages, however, slowly degrade the capacitors, opto-isolators and logic chips in a printer's control board. The small margins between expected timing and actual performance continue to shrink until the machine becomes a paper jam waiting to happen; you'll notice your print jobs jam only under certain conditions—during high humidity, at peak building load or even just randomly.
Socket-style voltage stabilizers provide both the surge suppression needed to prevent small, repetitive over-voltages, and long-term voltage regulation that keeps the output voltage within the printer’s design specifications. This ultimately prolongs the life of the printer's control board and power supply. For printers in use 24/7 (hospitals, logistics services), when a print job has a paper jam it can cause a significant workflow disruption. A voltage stabilizer is an inexpensive way to protect against component failures that result in these jams.
Summary
Printers can avoid paper jams and related problems if you use our socket-style stabilizers. They remove stepper motor timing problems, ensure smooth control of the fuser roller temperature, filter harmful harmonics that trick the paper sensors, and ensure that the control boards don't get damaged by accumulating spikes over time. It simply plugs into any wall outlet, making it perfect for copy centers, office printers, medical imaging centers and anywhere you are unsure about the quality of the power supplied. We have over 20 years’ experience, a 50,000 m² building, design and manufacture our own core components and have had the honor of being an official drafter of national standards. Contact us today and ensure you always have a spike-free power source to your printers.